Last Tuesday the House held a markup of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibly Act, so I scheduled a series of meetings with Senate staffers for late last week to make sure they understand the importance of CTE in both education and workforce development and kept CTE provisions in their version of the bill.
The Senate has yet to draft their bill, but staffers indicated that there were going to craft their own bill rather than mirror the House’s language – all the more reason to advocate for CTE to stay in the bill! If the Senate doesn’t understand CTE’s relevance to the President’s goals of postsecondary education for all and improving our economy, they may not make room for CTE in the bill. Language for the Senate bill will likely be drafted in August when Congress is in recess. Because this bill will also be included in budget reconciliation (like in the House) and the Senate has an October 15th deadline for reconciliation, our timeline for advocacy is tight, but we are working hard to communicate that CTE should be a part of the Senate bill.
You can help by contacting your Senator and letting him or her know the importance of CTE in this bill. Your message is this:
- I am calling about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
- I support providing grants to community colleges and area career technical schools which will allow these institutions to provide students access to high quality education and training.
- I also support providing financial support for facilities modernization, renovation and repair at community colleges, K-12 schools, and area technical schools.
You can reach your Senator’s office through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, or you can find their email information at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
If you have any questions or receive any feedback from your Congressional outreach, please contact me at nconneely@careertech.org.
Tags: advocacy, community colleges, Congress, federal legislation, Job training, Public Policy